"It still has not hit home," World Series of Poker Champion Joe Hachem says about this business of becoming an instant celebrity.
One minute he's a reasonably successful but unknown Australian, a former chiropractor who fancied himself a pretty good gambler.
And then within a matter of days, he is the winner of the World Series of Poker's main event, a man who outplayed 5,619 other wanna-be champs, gets a $7.5 million first prize and then jets off to LA for some late night conversation with Jay Leno on national television. "It's an awesome thing, everything that's happened," he says, sitting in the Golden Nugget's coffee shop on a November morning, telling a reporter what it's been like, this leap from anonymity to being a famous face strangers stop on the street.
He shakes his head, smiling, perhaps at the crowded panorama of experiences that have filled his life since the early hours of that mid-August morning at the Horseshoe when the final hand was dealt.
With the victory still fresh in his mind, Harrah's flew the 39-year-old Hachem and his family from Las Vegas to LA, put them up in a hotel. "The Leno people were nice. It was a fun interview," saying it casually, as though he's been getting the star treatment all his life. He's done several other television interviews and has others coming up, so Hachem understands, but it's best to skip the details for the moment until everything has been firmed up.
There's even an agent now, which seems to be the way it is for the winners of big poker events, who are suddenly plunged into the serious business of getting the most out of opportunities that fill the horizons of his life in almost every direction.
"I signed with William Morris," the oldest of the Hollywood talent agencies which has been actively looking for opportunities to link gaming with other complementary elements of big business and entertainment. "I was lucky enough," Hachem says of Morris.
"They actually came after me. Being totally ignorant about so many of the issues I have to deal with now, Morris seems like the way to go. People told me it is the biggest talent agency in the world and I haven't found anyone walking away from William Morris saying they didn't look after them."
He gives this piece of news a tight-lipped smile and look that seems to say, pretty cool, huh?
Hachem will have no trouble staying busy with big poker tournaments, perhaps up until the time when he returns to Las Vegas next summer to defend his title at the next World Series.
Some kind of book deal also seems likely. "I've had a very interesting life," the Lebanese-born Hachem says matter of factly. The kind of conversations he has so far had with the Morris people range from video games to TV shows.
The fact Hachem projects an image that goes well with television - an easy smile, personality and good looks - will work to his advantage at a time when the eventual ancillary benefits generated by his World Series win could be very big.
Sponsors anxious to- sink big money into pokerrelated events want to be connected with people who look like winners, who ARE winners.
Life has been pretty much become a non-stop shuttle from one photo op or poker event to another.
During the months ahead he has tournaments scheduled in the Bahamas, Copenhagen, Paris, Monte Carlo and of course at several locations in the U.S. After the World Series, his thinking was that he would go back home and essentially be the same person he had always been.
"That's the way I was thinking," he laughs, "but it was naive. Wherever I go I'm gonna get media attention and a certain spotlight, so I'm going to try and enjoy what's ahead of me and give what I can back to the poker world."
Sitting at the Nugget coffee shop, he was between tournaments, sipping a glass of orange juice, working on a piece of toast.
He had just finished the Harrah's Tournament of Champions, a $2 million free-roll event at Caesars Palace that was open to those who made the final table at last year's main event and others who had qualified by virtue of their play in World Series circuit events at various Harrah's properties over the last year or so.
Hachem did not make the final table at Caesars, but he did get plenty of time in front of the ESPN cameras, a fact that is of no small importance for a poker champ who realizing the importance of image and quality exposure.
After breakfast he would be getting ready for several days of activity associated with the third season of the Poker Superstars Invitational being filmed at the Nugget for showing over much of next year on cable's FSN.
He's signed to play in the second annual National Heads-Up Poker Championship to be filmed in February at Caesars Palace for later showing on NBC.
And he's also just signed with PokerStars. com, as have the previous two World Series winners Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker. But unlike Raymer and Moneymaker who earned their main event seats via PokerStars satellites, Hachem bought into the $10,000 tournament with his own money.
But didn't he try to win one of the budget-priced online satellites that offered a seat in the championship? "Oh, of course I did," giving this a big grin. "I didn't suffer from a lack of trying. Who wants to put up that much of your own money."
The sequence of events that brought him to Las Vegas for the World Series began this past March when a friend played in a $30 online satellite and won.
Hmmmm, how sweet it would be . . . so Hachem decided to take a shot and try his luck with several PokerStars satellites, figuring he needed a win because the price of getting to Vegas would otherwise be too expensive.
"The thing was, I wanted to bring my whole family with me, you see, and I have four children . . . "So we're sitting there at the beach one day and my wife, she turns to me and says that she thinks I should go with my friends.
But he wasn't through with the satellites, not yet. In Las Vegas he tried a thousand dollar satellite and played poorly, not winning anything. So he decided to try one more thousand-dollar event. He placed 10th out of 900 players and collected twenty-eight thousand. He suddenly had his ticket to the main event.
What were his expectations as he sat down, one man among more than 5,600?
"My first thought was if I make it to the money than I have done well but three days later I had made it into the money and I start thinking about the (championship) bracelet. It's on the line and this is what I'm here for and I stopped thinking about the money, it was no longer the point and just played my heart out."
On the final hand against second place finisher Steve Dannemann, Hachem started with a 7, 3 off-suit . . . 7 of clubs, 3 of spades." Thinking about how to play this, Hachem knew that any kind of significant on the flop would probably have Dannemann pushing all his chips in.
"I wasn't prepared to get involved with him unless I actually had it . . . had the nuts. This was a plan I had had in place for hours."
At this point Hachem had about thirty-six million. There was about twenty million in front of Dannemann.
Hachem had the two hundred thousand big blind and Dannemann made it seven hundred thousand to call.
"I'm figuring I had to call, because if you get the right flop," and he shrugs, as though the situation speaks for itself.
"And then the flop comes 4, 5, 6." Explaining this months later, a slow smile spread across his face.
"Now the situation I was looking at was how do I get all his chips?"
Hachem makes a bet calculated to get a raise from Dannemann but he only calls. Now he's thinking that what Dannemann has is a couple of over cards, maybe a pair.
"The turn comes an ace," Hachem says. There's that slow smile again, "and now I know I have him, but how do I get it."
So Hachem bet two million into what at that point was a six million dollar pot. Dannemann studies the situation for a little bit and then raises three million more.
"Before he's even finished doing it I just said stop. I'm all in."
Dannemann did not waste time calling and then turned over an ace, 3.
The river card did nothing for Dannemann.
A friend listens to this description and shakes his head slowly, saying, "This talk of twenty million and thirty six million dollar bets. It just doesn't sound like the sort of thing that happens in the real world." But that's the way it is at the World Series of Poker.
Hachem nods, "Yeah, it's a bit crazy," thinking about this for a moment then saying, "And to think it wasn't many months ago that I was back home just struggling to get any kind of decent game together. No one wants to play at a reasonable limit."
What was a reasonable limit?
"You know, something like 25 and 50 no limit." Another pause and a can-you-believe-this shrug, "And now here I am playing with the biggest players in the world on TV."
The line-up scheduled at his tournament table later in the day would include Carlos Mortenson, Johnny Chan, Todd Brunson and Mike Sexton.
Hachem figures his Middle Eastern roots probably help explain his fascination with poker. "Being born Lebanese as I was and playing cards, it's a combination that's natural. Most of us enjoy card games and many of us are also very aggressive players."
He mentions Sammy Farha and Freddy Deeb as examples of other successful high limit poker players with Lebanese roots.
"So what does it take to play hold 'em successfully? "The most powerful piece of advice anyone's given me is that in hold'em you have to be the aggressor. You can't be the caller. If you're in the habit of calling then you're losing. You need to be the person forcing other people to make big decisions ...
"It's the way a champion plays."
